NatureNews Advisory Board member, Bathily urges African leaders to break colonial ties

Senegalese diplomat and former presidential candidate Professor Abdoulaye Bathily has tasked Africa countries to break ties with their erstwhile colonial masters.

He said this as the guest speaker at the 14th Thabo Mbeki Africa Day Lecture in Midrand, Johannesburg, at the weekend.

Professor Bathily, who is an Advisory Board member of NatureNews, said African leaders must liberate their people from colonial yolk.

He noted that Africa has enough resources to economically sustain itself, adding that the dream of the founding fathers and mothers of the continental organisationn have to be revisited and be reflected on, to make all of them come to fruition.

The former UN diplomat said: “To move Africa forward, we need thoughtful leaders and a vibrant civil society who can tell the truth to any power that is. We need conquering entrepreneurs to lead Africa’s economy.”

The lecture was an annual event organised by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation and the University of South Africa (Unisa) to commemorate Africa Day.

The day commemorates the founding of the Organisation of the African Unity (OAU) on May 25th, 1963, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The African Union (AU), the successor of the OAU, was launched in Durban, South Africa, on July 9, 2002.

Former President Thabo Mbeki could not physically attend the lecture as he had contracted flu that led to him being hospitalised.

He says the geopolitical crisis must be confronted to rid the world of unnecessary wars.

Past guest speakers at the Thbo Mbeki Lecture include the longest serving Secretary General of the OAU and former Prime Minister of Tanzania, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim; and the renowned African scholar and public intellectual, Professor Toyin Falola.